Yes, Buck-lite, & there was NO FRUIT on the island...just sand (read 'dirt'), rocks, cocoNUTs, wood, leaves (read 'herbal'), fish (read 'meat'), and leather (Wilson)...until he made fire ('fogo), which brings us back to Roberto [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/biggrin.gif[/img]

I had just returned from Brasil where there is a guy selling ice cold coconut water on every corner (and for 25 cents!!!!) only to find Tom Hanks spouting on every fluff interview hyping the movie that "I lost 40 pounds by drinking lots and lots of coconut water". Well, weight loss being one of the largest markets in America, I went crazy trying to get investors to set up CocoFrio stands (a cart with a sort of drillpress meets soda fountain that drains the coconut sanitarily then runs the water through a copper tube jacketed in dry ice to make it super cold) on every busy upscale street and mall in America (where we could easily charge $2.50-3.00). I even had pictures of the guys with lines of customers in Ipanema. I figured with Oscar Boy Hanks touting the product on the Today show it would be a shoe-in. No one got it....so here I am still floggin wines instead of retired to a cidade marivilhosa.....

Roberto, I will be extremely upset if anyone messes with my Guinness. Although I have to admit I think the nitrogen can thing is a fantastic breakthrough in beverage technology. Can I avoid the charge of hypocrisy by deeming the can to be a mere container modification and not an adulteration of the goods themselves?

Dan, the nitrogen widget is a giant step BACK to tradition, giving a much smoother, more pub tap like pour. The man who invented it actually got a knighthood for "making it possible for the boys in the forces overseas to enjoy a proper pint"!!!! Speaking of beer in the military, did you know that during the Pacific campaign in WW II (when yanks were lucky to get a warm can of Schlitz once a month) the Brits outfitted two cargo ships as floating breweries and used the same biplane torpedo bombers that sunk the Bismark to drop kegs at the front? Some people have their priorities straight!

Back to widgets, sometime try this experiment: Pour and enjoy a Boddingtons or Bishop's or other pale ale that comes in a widget can, but leave an ounce or so and the foam in the glass, then pour a similar flavored ale from a bottle into the same glass. The residual nitrogen will "cream" the new bear and soften the hard carbonation of bottled beer.

When I was in 'Nam '67-'68, we could get three kinds of beer in my outfit (sometimes) - Ballintine's via the PX, in very rusty steel cans, 25 cents each; Ba Mui Ba ("33"), and Chat Noir ("tiger piss"), both Vietnamese beers; the price for those was whatever the seller wanted to charge, but was never more than about 50 cents. We were rationed to two cans of Ballentine's each day, but could rarely get it, even if anyone wanted to drink it. I usually opted for Ba Mui Ba, sold by mama-sans from chogey-pole baskets along the trail as we came in from the field. Bottles were iced down under banana leaves and weren't bad at all, but don't eat the ice!

4th of July, 1976 and I am sweating my BRAINS out in full dress uniform on a parade ground at 1st Armored Division HQ in Ansbach, Germany listening to endless speeches while occasionally marching around in circles (and with only water to drink) while the Rads (an endearing term for German soldiers at the time, derived from "komrad" as in brothers in arms) are A) pounding ice cold hefeweissen and B) taunting us about "what is the big deal with 200 years? Your barracks are older than that!" And they were, too....

Wow, we are covering some ground here! From philosophy to movies to pizza to beer during wartime to....what next?

Can we just make this the official (and permanent) "just chewing the fat with my drinking buddies" thread?

Just imagine someone coming in on this a year from now and trying to posit "A sad day in Dirtville (file under "ass" redux)" as the impetus for such cordial backfence jawboning. Just a shame ol'Verne hasn't weighed in....

And Jerry would have loved it (especially when we get back to championing great R&B over hack pop crap)!

WW must have stayed out in the sun too long while brewing up that Mescal.... someone will bring hom out of the heat eventually. BTW, did anyone see Castaway... [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/biggrin.gif[/img] [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/biggrin.gif[/img] [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/biggrin.gif[/img]

Da-Da-Dad-Burn-It Robbie, How can you start such a great thread KNOWING I be gonned! There is as much concern in Napa and Sonoma about this problem of the wines being "Turley-ized " as you say is evidenced in your favorite Italians. There are still a hand-full of free-spirits in Napa and Sonoma, plus the Central Coast gang that do their own thing and and produce some deelish juice and don't think they should charge 1st growth prices for them. I didn't exercise my allocation option on ANY wine that was over 50 bucks. I'm now officially off Araujo, Bryant familt,Harlan, Grace Family and yes Rad, Diamond Creeks' mailing list. The others I get here locally. I'm staying on Dehlinger, Scherrer, Bell, Vincent Arroyo, Arrowood, Cohn etc. Howm-so-be-it, I'm not buying any of their "Special Reserve " bottlings effer. Drank a case of them Italianz and must admit, with the exception of 3, enjoyed them berry-much and none were over 14 bucks. As stated earlier, I'll do a more complete posting Sat and Sun. WW

Arrowood is another winery I first encountered at the Nantucket Wine Festival. Unfortunately, I don't think they were represented there this year. I liked the wine I sampled but don't have any tasting notes so will look for your report. (It might have even been a SW)

This thread is a classic, and was just screaming out to be revisited! (Or at least remembered....)

A lot of interesting debates going on here. I've often wondered what wine styles I am in the process of missing out on due to the "internationalization" of techniques and tastes.

For example, I was reading about Barolo in Oz Clarke's _Encyclopedia of Grapes_, and he seems to suggest that the "old style" Barolo is on its way out as more "accessible" (fruitier, softer, more drinkable at a young age) Barolo is made. (Clarke says that he prefers the newer style.)

Of course, I can't afford either kind of Barolo, so I guess it's a moot concern. But still, I wonder about the extent to which I have no access to perfectly good, but untrendy, styles of wine just because of the transitions taking place in the wine industry (and in demographics and consumer demand)....